Aaron D. Wiegert

Poet

Des Moines, IA
Iowa US
Email: 
[email protected]
Website: 
aarondwiegert.com

Author's Bio

Aaron D. Wiegert is a father and trail runner based in Des Moines, Iowa. A finalist for the 2026 Poetry of the Plains & Prairies Award from North Dakota State University Press, his poetry has appeared in academic and indie journals around the U.S., as well as in Canada, England, Scotland, Austria, Australia, Netherlands, Nigeria, and Singapore. He served as poetry editor for Drunk Monkeys and interview editor for Hermeneutic Chaos. He is a Best of the Net nominee, and his first full-length book of poetry, 'A Portrait of Energy,' was just released from Luchador Press. He lives in Iowa with his wife and son.

Publications & Prizes

Book:
A Portrait of Energy (Spartan Press, 2026)
Chapbooks:
The Last Railroad Spike (Budget Press, 2016)
,
Evil Queen (Budget Press, 2013)
Journals:
A Thin Slice of Anxiety
,
American Tanka
,
Antique Children
,
As It Ought To Be Magazine
,
Barstow & Grand
,
Blue Hour
,
Burner
,
Contraposition
,
Crab Fat Magazine
,
Dialogist
,
Diverse Voices Quarterly
,
Drunk Monkeys
,
Eunoia Review
,
Hermeneutic Chaos Literary Journal
,
Hyacinth Review
,
Lines + Stars
,
Literary Orphans
,
Lyrical Iowa
,
Meat for Tea: The Valley Review
,
Message in a Bottle
,
Midwest Quarterly
,
One Sentence Poems
,
Pacific Review
,
Paper Darts
,
Penumbra
,
phati'tude Literary Magazine
,
Poetry Salzburg Review
,
Pure Slush
,
Red Coyote
,
Red Fez
,
Right Hand Pointing
,
Slipstream
,
South Carolina Review
,
Star*Line
,
Stone Circle Review
,
The Broken Plate
,
the museum of americana
,
The Vehicle
,
Trampoline
,
Tulane Review
Prizes won: 

Second Place—Lucille Morgan Wilson Award (Lyrical Iowa, 2025) for the poem Parking,

Finalist—Poetry of the Plains & Prairies (POPP) Award (North Dakota State University, 2026) for the chapbook A Portrait of Energy,

Nomination—Best of the Net (2012) by Drunk Monkeys Webzine for the poem The Taste of Kerosene

Watch

Personal Favorites

Favorite authors: 
Walt Whitman, Oscar Wilde, Gustave Flaubert, Edgar Allan Poe, Herman Melville, Willa Cather, Aldous Huxley, James Tate, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, Ernest Hemingway, P.K. Dick, Raymond Carver, William Faulkner, John Steinbeck, Vladimir Nabokov, Jerzy Kosinski, Anais Nin, Franz Kafka, Charles Bukowski, Cormac McCarthy, David Foster Wallace, Jonathan Franzen, Flannery O'Connor, Rainer Maria Rilke.
What I'm reading now: 
The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin, Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole , Junky by William S. Burroughs

More Information

Gives readings: 
Yes
Travels for readings: 
Yes
Fluent in: 
English
Born in: 
Des Moines, IA
Iowa
Raised in: 
Martensdale, IA
Iowa
Please note: All information in the Directory is provided by the listed writers or their representatives.
Last update: Sep 14, 2026